[Editorial] GNP Must Explain Seo Jung-woo Shock

The arrest of Seo Jung-woo, a former legal advisor and vice chairman of a private supporting group, the Boo-Kook Team, for Lee Hoi-chang, the main opposition Grand National Party’s (GNP) former presidential candidate, for allegedly taking illegal campaign funds during the last year’s presidential election is quite unexpected. Seo went to the same high school as Lee and is also known as his closest aide. Given that he had directly received 10 billion won from multiple companies, how far does the GNP’s illicit fundraising for the presidential campaign go?

The prosecution should unveil the truth and leave no suspicions unanswered. How much money was raised? Was the fundraising conducted only by Seo? Was the money ever used for the private purposes of the people involved? Did then-candidate Lee know about the fundraising in advance? All the allegations should be thoroughly investigated. Boo-Kook Team had once been a very influential body as Lee’s main private organization, and its members numbered as many as 350,000 across the nation. Boo-Kook Team was merged into one of the official organizations of the GNP only one month ahead of the election, and it is hard to separate its function from the party.

The GNP should unveil everything before it is too late. When the prosecution previously disclosed that Rep. Choi Don-woong had accepted 10 billion won of SK’s slush funds, Lee Hoi-chang and the GNP leader Choe Byung-yul apologized to the public. However, it was not a sincere confession at all. If they had clearly revealed all their activities, they might now be free from the scandal of illicit fundraising for the presidential election.

It is improper for the GNP to resist the prosecution’s probes into the presidential election fund. Who would be convinced if the party leader went on hunger strike in order to support the special counsel in the presidential aides scandal, paralyzing the nation’s political functions, while acting differently regarding the prosecution’s investigation of presidential election funds, saying, “The prosecution’s probe into election funds is plotted to give excuses to special counsel?” Not having agreed to Choe’s hunger strike, the public supported the special investigation bill because they want to see an independent counsel focus on presidential aides scandal and the prosecution for illicit presidential campaign funds.

The GNP will have to collaborate with the investigators rather than resist them. Without clearing up suspicions over illegal fundraising during the presidential campaign, the GNP cannot take over political leadership.